South Korea in 1994

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A republic of northeastern Asia on the southern half of the peninsula of Korea, the Republic of Korea (South Korea) borders the Sea of Japan, the Korea Strait, the Yellow Sea, and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea at roughly the 38th parallel. Area: 99,274 sq km (38,330 sq mi). Pop. (1994 est.): 44,436,000. Cap.: Seoul. Monetary unit: won, with (Oct. 7, 1994) a free rate of 799 won to U.S. $1 (1,271 won = £ 1 sterling). President in 1994, Kim Young Sam; prime ministers, Lee Hoi Chang, Lee Yung Duk from April 22, and, from December 17, Lee Hong Koo.

The crisis over North Korea’s nuclear program and the death of North Korean leader Kim Il Sung in July affected events in South Korea in 1994. At the truce village of Panmunjom in March, North and South Korea had begun talks to keep the peninsula free of nuclear weapons and set up a presidential summit. The negotiations collapsed, however, when the North threatened to turn Seoul into a "sea of fire" for supporting sanctions against Pyongyang. Seoul had backed U.S. efforts to seek a UN Security Council vote to force North Korea to allow inspections of all its nuclear facilities to determine whether it was diverting plutonium to the production of nuclear weapons. North Korea said that it would consider sanctions an act of war.

As tensions on the peninsula mounted, U.S. Pres. Bill Clinton announced in late March that the U.S. would send Patriot antimissile batteries to South Korea. South Korean Pres. Kim Young Sam explained that they would be used to defend U.S. military bases. The first batch of missiles arrived in April. That month U.S. Defense Secretary William Perry visited Seoul to discuss plans to defend the South against North Korean aggression. The South Korean government agreed to modernize its forces by buying such sophisticated U.S. weapons as Apache attack helicopters and antitank missiles.

After months of escalating threats, North-South relations took an abrupt turn toward reconciliation. On June 28 both sides agreed to a date for a historic summit, the first ever between the presidents of North and South Korea. Kim Young Sam was to travel to Pyongyang on July 25 to meet his northern counterpart. This breakthrough came 10 days after former U.S. president Jimmy Carter visited Pyongyang. Carter’s mediation also led to the reopening of talks between North Korea and the U.S. over the North’s nuclear program. These negotiations put South Korea in the delicate position of being an observer of events that would directly affect its security. In April South Korea had made a major concession by dropping its demand for an exchange of special envoys with North Korea as a condition for approving direct U.S.-North Korean talks to resolve the nuclear crisis.

In his first public remarks on relations with North Korea following the death of Kim Il Sung, Kim Young Sam supported the Geneva accord. He also pledged to supply Pyongyang with nuclear power technology if it opened its nuclear facilities to international inspection. In further talks with the U.S., however, North Korea ruled out South Korea’s participation in building the nuclear power plants. When the U.S. continued to insist that the South have a role in providing nuclear technology to the North, the talks were stalemated.

When news of Kim Il Sung’s death was announced, the government in Seoul refused to send official condolences to Pyongyang. On the day of Kim’s funeral, thousands of riot police took up positions across South Korea to prevent public mourning. Hundreds of defiant students were arrested.

In mid-August, militant students staged a reunification rally in Seoul to coincide with celebrations of Korea’s liberation from Japan in 1945. Some 6,000 students battled riot police, who arrested more than 1,000 demonstrators. The rioting that continued the next day led to more arrests.

The government crackdown surprised many South Koreans. Kim Young Sam, a former dissident and the nation’s first president in more than 30 years who had not had a military career, was criticized for using the harsh National Security Law to arrest student demonstrators, as former military governments had done.

During the crisis with North Korea, the president kept firm control over government policy. Prime Minister Lee Hoi Chang resigned on April 22 following a dispute with Kim over how to respond to the nuclear crisis. Lee had insisted on his right to approve all decisions made by a Cabinet group set up to coordinate government policy on North Korea. Lee himself had not been included in the group. Previously, the office of prime minister had been largely ceremonial. Lee, a former Supreme Court justice, sought to play a more direct role in policy making. The president replaced Lee with Lee Yung Duk, deputy premier and minister for reunification. In May the president initiated another shake-up in his administration by replacing seven vice-ministers, including the vice-minister of foreign affairs, who had publicly contradicted administration policy regarding North Korea. None of those replaced was given new assignments.

The government was drawn into a domestic controversy when hundreds of reformist monks staged demonstrations at the Chogye Temple complex in central Seoul to protest the reelection of Suh Eui Hyun as head of the nation’s largest Buddhist order. After weeks of clashes between the reformists and Suh’s supporters, riot police stormed the temple complex on April 11 and detained 134 monks. Suh was forced to resign. The reformists accused him of accepting $10 million from a local businessman and funneling the money to Kim Young Sam’s 1992 election campaign.

The president was embarrassed by a corruption scandal in Inchon, one of South Korea’s largest cities. Government prosecutors had arrested seven city officials for embezzling more than $1 million in tax revenues. In September the city’s mayor, Choi Ki Son, a close associate of the president, resigned and took responsibility for the scandal. Kim Young Sam renewed his pledge to fight graft and corruption.

On October 29 the prosecutor’s office in Seoul ruled that two former presidents, Chun Doo Hwan and Roh Tae Woo, had participated in "premeditated military rebellion"--the 1979 military coup that brought them to power. Many felt that the effects of a prosecution would have been so disruptive that the nation would be better served if no trials were held. The government’s decision not to prosecute the men so angered Lee Ki Taek, leader of the opposition Democratic Party, that he disrupted the National Assembly proceedings for several weeks. After resigning his seat on November 25, he called upon other legislators to follow his lead and force new elections.

A bright spot for the government was the economy. For several years economic growth had slowed to between 5% and 6%--brisk for most countries but a decline for South Korea. The government predicted gross domestic product growth of 8.5% for 1994. The stock market index leaped some 10% in September, breaking the 1,000 mark to hit a record high. The Finance Ministry announced in October that the ceiling on foreign holdings in Korean companies would be raised from 8% to 10% by year’s end and to 15% in 1995. The country’s export growth rate averaged 14% during the first 10 months of the year, the highest it had been since 1988. This success was attributed to South Korea’s restructuring of its industries, to the high value of the Japanese yen, and to economic recoveries in Europe, the U.S., and Japan. Joseph L. Nagy